Every college recruiter always remembers their first athletic scholarship offer.
For child phenom Rudolph ‘Blaze’ Ingram, he will forever remember the day Florida A&M football presented a golden opportunity to become a Rattler.
The Rattlers’ recruiting director, Devin Rispress, called 11-year-old Ingram Monday to officially offer him to play at FAMU after he graduates from high school in 2029.
Ingram will also compete in the Orange and Green Spring Game on Saturday, April 15 at Bragg Memorial Stadium.
“I spoke to your father (also Rudolph Ingram) and have been following you for a few years,” Rispress said on the call. “You still have a long way to go, but you have a good supporting cast and definitely a worker.
“So what I’m going to do is offer you at FAMU. Keep caring for those grades and keep working the way you work and we’ll bring you over here for the spring game.”
Ingram from Tampa plays running back for the Bay Area Jaguars. He earned the nickname “Fastest Kid Alive” at the age of seven after completing a 100-meter dash in 13.48 seconds – breaking the ESPN record for his age group. That time was barely four seconds behind Olympian Usain Bolt’s 9.58 seconds (2009), the fastest in history.
Ingram also runs a 4.29-second, 40-yard dash.
“I’m very proud of it for Blaze,” Rudolph Ingram (father) said in an interview with ScoreBook Live’s Andy Villamarzo. “It’s because of one thing I know in life as a business owner – consistency is everything. Between the ages of seven and eleven, he was posted on ESPN at least twenty-two times.”
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Ingram is a social media star.
He has 635,000 followers on Instagram, a Facebook page with 7,600 followers, and nearly 2,500 followers on Twitter.
The Rispress video that Ingram offers has been viewed over 400,000 times in less than 24 hours.
The FAMU offer comes just three days after Blaze competed in the Under Armor Camp Series Combine at West Orange High School in Winter Garden. He was the youngest in the camp.
“To see (Blaze) being consistent, working and believing in his dreams and his vision is impeccable to me,” Rudolph Ingram, who is a sports agent, told Villamarzo. “You couldn’t ask for much more as a father.”
Gerald Thomas, III reports on Florida A&M University Athletics for the Democrat from Tallahassee. Reach out to him via email at [email protected] or on Twitter @3peatgee.
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